Takuya Katsu

Strategy 2.2. Reuse of excess & unused space for greening and amenities

The pilot site is situated along Swift Way and within 50m of an eatery. The illustration demonstrates the simplicity of activating a suitable parking lot that is largely unused but at times a temporary storage area. By adding outdoor seating, tables and shade, workers can take breaks outdoors to relax and recharge. The informal space also allows casual interactions that is crucial for migrant workers who rely of word-of-mouth communication as a major source of information.

Many issues concerning workers in Dandenong South overlapped and then pulled investigations in opposite directions. Data collection was also greatly affected by the Covid-19 restrictions and lockdowns resulting in this framework which was developed to manage the primary focus of the study and connect the stories that we found and ideas that we had. Our report focuses on changing the paradigm of industrial workers by recognising their disadvantage, recommending place-based objectives that are sensitive to the needs of, and issues faced by workers.

Amenity spaces are few and far in between in Dandenong South, with almost all of the study area having no access to an open space. Furthermore, there are few options for workers to take a break or have their meals outdoors currently. As the supply of vacant land in Dandenong South is about to be exhausted, and no future supply forecasted, there will be competing interest for what is left. This maps shows current parking conditions from an aerial survey, and provides a starting point for activating unused parking lots to create the much needed space for workers to relax and enjoy.

This image sequence shows the parking lots that have been identified as excess to current use. The red overlay highlights spaces meant for parking but are either unused or misused. Many businesses use their excess parking for temporary storage of goods and rubbish. This brings to question if the businesses need such adaptable spaces or are they simply misusing it because they can.

The Strategic Proposal Map shows the identified sites for a trial of each of the 4 strategies, all purposefully located close to or along Swift Way. This allows the potential for a worker to experience all four interventions in a day, providing a better outcome overall instead of a targeted result from each individual strategy.

Even though Dandenong South has a much lower concentration of bachelor degree holders or higher when compared to Melbourne and the South East region, many of these higher skilled workers are not being utilized in knowledge-intensive jobs. Within the top 3 industries, more than 7% of workers in jobs classed as Technicians and Trades Workers, Labourers, and Machinery Operators and Drivers, have attained a bachelor degree and higher. Zooming out to the South East region, the skill mismatch continues, with the second graph showing a bias towards workers who speak other languages at home.